Friday, 16 May 2014

Is it true or just another satirical piece picked up by our so-called journalists abroad as real news? Who knows?

Internet Banner of Khabar Naak with Aftab Iqbal

Aafaaq Khiali asa Afaq Khiali, one of aforementioned newsmen who spends most of his time in North America, has reported in his column, after a long prologue dripping with indulgences of praise for Mir Khalil-ur-Rehman, owner of Geo TV and Jang Group, that Aftab Iqbal is no longer with Geo TV. He has reported that Aftab was recording another version of Khabar Naak in his own home studio and selling it to Express News. He refused to cease his under-the-table production when Geo TV discovered about his activities for a rival channel. I found this column in May 15, 2014 to May 21, 2014 issue of Urdu weekly Pakistan Post which is published in Canadian city of Mississauga, just west of Toronto.

The only readable content of Mr. Khiali’s column with some real news in it was mentioned in such a cursory manner that it had to be found in notoriously annoying Baquiya section.

Indications do point to possibility of some factuality in this claim because since May 10, 2014, Aftab has not been seen in any new recordings of Khabar Naak.

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Growing up in Pakistan, young boys, as they hit puberty and start getting curious, come to know of mythological existence of Blueprints or Blueprint Films (and pictures).

The legend is that in these Blueprints “films” or photographs naked people engage in open debauchery for your viewing pleasure. As an inevitable consequence, Blueprint is a dirty word and is not menat for a polite company. Its abbreviation, BP, is also not meant to be said unless it is in the context of medical health of a person in which case it simply refers to blood pressure.

My dear Pakistani men and boys, I have a bit of bad news for you. There is no such thing as Blueprint films, or pictures for that matter. In other words, Blueprint does not mean dirty films or photographs. Outside Pakistan, blueprint is not a dirty word. (I have been told that our favourite enemies in the east and frenemies across east are also suffering from same lingual incertitude.)

According to a dictionary1 following is the meaning of blueprint:

a photographic print in white on a bright blue ground or blue on a white ground used especially for copying maps, mechanical drawings, and architects' plans

In simple words, blueprint is a technical map or drawing of a building or machine drawn with white lines on a blue background.

Here are some examples of real blueprints:

Blueprint of an old airplane

Blueprint of spaceship from Star Trek

Blueprint of Batman's car

In normal conversation in English language, blueprint often means a plan or scheme.

In olden days, dirty movies were referred to as blue movies which somehow became blueprint movies in Pakistan. The terminology of blue movies still exists but is rarely used in English language.